FROM THIS EPISODE

When we learned that László Krasznahorkai would be in America, Jim Krusoe and Michael Silverblatt flew to San Francisco to speak with him. The Hungarian novelist collaborated with global master filmmaker Béla Tarr on his last five movies. Satantango, the novel and basis of their first film has finally been translated (brilliantly) into English. Susan Sontag said of this seven-hour cinema masterpiece that she would gladly see every minute of it, yearly, for the rest of her life. The author speaks about the novel form, the meaning of suffering, and Hungarian music – the saddest music in the world.